Month: July 2021

Over the course of a long and impressive career, one of Jay-Z’s most impressive feats has been remaining aware of and relevant to hip-hop’s youth movements. While others who started around the same time have fallen out of favor over the years, today’s rising stars still look up to Jay, even now, nearly 30 years later. A Jay co-sign is often the first sign that it’s a new artist’s time to shine, and most recently he bestowed that blessing on Louisville rapper EST Gee, who he not only invited to the studio but also gave some blunt but useful advice.

Normally, being told to not bring a ghostwriter to the studio might be considered an insult, but EST Gee seemingly took it in stride, seeing it as a sign that Jay is cooler than the average old head. He told Complex about the phone call Jay made just before bringing EST Gee to the Super Bowl and to the studio.

“Jay-Z kinda old,” he recalled. “He been in rap for a long time and he ain’t weird. He’s a regular n****. He gon’ shoot a joke at you and everything. He told me, ‘Let me bring you down to the Super Bowl with me so we can kick it, man.’ He’s like, ‘We get in the studio, make sure you don’t bring your ghostwriter with you.’ I’m like, ‘Damn.’ He’s like, ‘Yeah man, they told me you have somebody write that shit for you.’ He was dead serious about it. That’s how I know he’s a street n**** who made it down to the big level.”

Jay is far from the only rap veteran to put his stamp of approval on the Kentuckian rapper. EST Gee is also signed to Yo Gotti’s label, CMG, along with Moneybagg Yo and 42 Dugg, where he just released his new mixtape, Bigger Than Life Or Death, this week.

Watch EST Gee recount his phone call with Jay-Z above.

When Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen went on The View in September 2020 to atone for his actions (and promote his new book), he encountered a less than sympathetic Meghan McCain. She repeatedly called him a liar and questioned why she should believe anything he has to say. It was a tense interview from start to finish, and Cohen didn’t help his case by attempting to flatter McCain while expressing his admiration for her late father, Senator John McCain.

However, while stopping by The New Abnormal podcast on Tuesday, Cohen claims that The View co-hosts apologized to him after the show for the way he was treated by McCain, particularly for how she opened the interview by telling him to apologize to Stormy Daniels, who Cohen famously paid off to hide an affair with Trump after his wife, Melania, had just given birth to their son, Barron. Via The Daily Beast:

“I wanted to just say, are you kidding me? Seriously? It’s a stupid question!” Cohen added. “And even all of the other folks that are on The View, like Joy Behar and others, they all turned around afterwards and said, ‘You know, we’re really kind of sorry about Meghan’s comments.’”

What makes this anecdote awkward is that the interview with Cohen is one of the times when McCain probably should have been combative instead of readily taking him at his word. As McCain noted at the time, Cohen has openly admitted to being a “a liar, a cheater, and a thug” for Trump, so it was a fair question for McCain to ask why she should believe him, especially when Cohen has a book to sell.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Ted Cruz can’t help himself. He’s enormously online and won’t stop tweeting, to the point where he’s been busted ignoring his colleagues while tweeting during committee meetings. He also (and this still in the “allegedly” camp) may have once spent late-night time on Twitter while “liking” adult content and then blaming it on a “staffing issue.” Yet Cruz appears to be mostly running his own tweets and often spends the day taking digs at those who don’t share his political views.

He did so on Wednesday while firing a shot at Biden in the realm of international relations. Specifically, Cruz side-eyed Biden’s diplomatic approach to Putin (and Putin being “satisfied”), which is strange, considering that Cruz still backs Trump, and the whole Putin-Trump thing has proven to be enormously sketchy. Cruz also has no room to claim being an effective diplomat either, because when most people think about Cruz and another country, it involves his Cancun debacle or his recent decision to stand in a crumbling home in Israel on Memorial Day. Still, Cruz went there while making a juvenile Twitter joke (with a made-up headline) about how “Biden satisfies Putin.” Naturally, he added an eggplant emoji and, uh, a clown face while adding, “Maybe not the headline they were looking for.”

Naturally, Ted’s use of the eggplant took people’s minds to a place that Ted probably wasn’t “looking for,” either: back to that tweet that he (or someone on his staff) “liked.”

People also wondered why some politicians (and Cruz, a sitting senator, frequently falls into this camp) decide to behave like stereotypical teenagers.

Maybe it’s time to step away from the Twitter, Ted?

Toronto rapper Belly is on the comeback trail, with a new album, See You Next Wednesday, he’s promoting with a string of strong singles and revitalized videos including “IYKYK,” “Money On The Table,” and “Zero Love” featuring Moneybagg Yo. Today, he keeps the rollout rolling with the explosive video for his latest single, “Better Believe,” which features his XO Records leader The Weeknd and Atlanta trap mad scientist Young Thug.

The video seems to take a lot of inspiration from The Terminator, with Belly rapping in an auto factory while The Weeknd blows up an oil refinery and Thugger takes a direct hit from an 18-wheeler and walks it off (all references to scenes from the 1984 sci-fi thriller).

And while Belly gears up to release See You Next Wednesday, his first new album since 2018’s Immigrant, his collaborators also have a few things in the works. The Weeknd has hinted that he has a full body of work on the way, while Thug is set to produce and star in a musical dance dramedy, Throw It Back, with Tiffany Haddish and Us star Shahadi Wright Joseph.

Watch Belly’s “Better Believe” video featuring The Weeknd and Young Thug above.

Young Thug is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

When Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon’s Big Red Machine announced their upcoming album How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? and the collaborators who would appear on it, the obvious headline was Taylor Swift, who guests on a couple songs. There are plenty of other notable guests, though, including Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes and Anaïs Mitchell, who sing on the newly released “Phoenix.”

Dessner says of the song:

“‘Phoenix’ was one of the last songs we wrote for this record. I was thinking about The Band and the Grateful Dead …maybe imagining this Big Red Machine album was some version of the Last Waltz. Justin first heard it while driving and immediately the chorus melody came into his head. I shared the sketch with Robin Pecknold, who I’ve been a fan of forever and who I’d been dreaming would join us on this record. Robin wrote the verses and pre chorus as a kind of dialogue with Justin, recalling a conversation they once had backstage in Phoenix. Later Anais wrote words to the chorus and the Westerlies added their magic to the instrumental. JT Bates rumbles around in rare form on the drums on this song. I think it’s what I always imagined Big Red Machine would sound like.”

Pecknold also said, “It was a high, high honor to work on this song, and beyond that it was a really interesting creative challenge. Justin’s vocals and the beautiful chorus were already in place before I got my hands on it, so I felt my job melodically and lyrically was to set his entrance up in the best possible way. I felt like a pilgrim putting questions to an elusive sage, not needing clear answers, but happy for the chance to ask.”

Listen to “Phoenix” above.

How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? is out 8/27 via Jagjaguwar/37d03d. Pre-order it here.

When you have Margot Robbie next to you, it’s kind of hard to steal the show, but that’s exactly what John Cena pulled off on Wednesday night when he stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote The Suicide Squad while decked out in his full Peacemaker costume. With director James Gunn in tow, Cena went for it and spent the entire interview grinning like a goon while looking like an absolute weirdo.

Of course, he was completely in character for Peacemaker, who Gunn has described as the “world’s biggest douchebag,” and apparently, Cena won’t stop taking the costume home. According to Gunn, Cena (while filming the recently wrapped first season of the Peacemaker spinoff for HBO Max) had to be warned repeatedly to leave the costume on set.

“By the way, John stole this outfit,” Gunn told guest host Anthony Anderson (via Comic Book). “I just want to tell everybody that we’ve asked him. Because after we shot The Suicide Squad, we shot the Peacemaker TV series, and I kept telling him to quit taking the outfit. I know it doesn’t look like it’s that [expensive], but these costumes are tens of thousands of dollars to put together. And we’re hoping for a Season 2, and now HBO’s not gonna give it to us, because we’re over budget.”

The trio also regaled Anderson with tales of Cena’s crazy stunts like stuffing his face with a dangerous amount of empanadas during a scene, which doesn’t even compare to another part of this interview, in which Robbie reveals why she slept in the same room as a cardboard Cena cutout for years. Anderson and the Jimmy Kimmel Live crew then graciously brought the cardboard cutout action back for her. Yay.

One of the most entertaining recurring segments on Late Night is “Day Drinking With Seth Meyers,” for which Meyers and a guest spend the day imbibing a bevy of beverages while engaging in alcohol-fueled fun. Meyers has done the segment with guests like Rihanna, The Jonas Brothers, and Kelly Clarkson. It was reported a few days ago that Meyers was filming another installment in the series with Lorde, and now that segment has been revealed.

It turns out that Lorde had a harsh recovery: In an interview filmed after her and Meyers’ day out, she told the host, “I almost can’t even talk about it. I can’t look at an alcoholic drink ever again. It was insane. […] You did kind of destroy me, and I had to get a very pop star thing: an IV drip [laughs]. Someone came to my hotel and administered fluids to my corpse.”

As for the segment itself, it was a hoot, as the pair mixed drinks based on Lorde’s songs, went over some New Zealand and New England slang, and were increasingly full of laughs as the day went on.

Elsewhere on the program, Lorde perform her new single “Stoned At The Nail Salon,” so check out some clips from the episode above and below.

Reboots and remakes happen almost as a given these days. Masters of the Universe: Revelation is none of those things, mercifully enough. However, there’s certainly something to be said about having the guts to sequelize a series nearly three decades after the original aired, when one knows that the fandom is so intense that some people will be unhappy no matter how one handles the project. It sounds stressful, honestly! And this Netflix sequel is that kind of (as silly as this sounds, given all the things in this world there are to get worked up about) hot-button project. Obviously, the show follows up on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which originally aired back in 1983. Even if you don’t remember all the particulars of the show (which spun off the She-Ra: Princess of Power series), you know enough to likely have some residual feelings (and fear of a wrecked childhood) if you clicked on this review.

You most definitely are familiar with the Mattel toys and know the whole “By the Power of Grayskull” chant. Everyone, even a casual observer of He-Man, as an entity, knows that bit. And you’re likely well aware that Kevin Smith is the showrunner who brings this whole sequel thing together. Smith already had to confront rumors that he made The Teela Show because someone (and this is still floating around on social media) wanted to stomp all over what they haven’t even seen. It’s a situation that’s similar to the fake-review-bombing of Captain Marvel a few years ago. It’s not a fantastic thing to fend off, but people will get their kicks in any way they can.

Brace yourselves, for I’m here to break some news to you: Revelation does have a lot of Teela. Relax, this is not a bad thing. I promise. Because the original series, you know, did have a lot of Teela, too. She was a strong player in the original show, while helping to protect and train Prince Adam as Royal Guard leadership. Yes, she was badass. And she didn’t even know that Adam was He-Man. That was actually pretty awful, too. Seems like a lot of those in Adam’s inner circle knew about The Secret, including Orko, Man-At-Arms, Sorceress (duh), possibly Queen Marlena, and (obviously) Cringer/Battle Cat. The Secret was actually one of the most absurd and corniest (albeit forthright) parts of the original show. And this sequel takes a strong position on how ridiculous The Secret, as well as other parts of the original show, really were. And those flaws are both embraced and harnessed to propel the story into further action.

So yes, Revelation is a very direct sequel that’s meant to pick up (with much snazzier-looking animation) almost immediately after the O.G. show. A lot happens, really fast, and the first episode feels Earth-, or rather, Eternia-shattering. Skeletor returns again and clashes with He-Man in a battle that threatens to destroy the very fabric of reality. The Sword of Power goes missing, and there’s deception and rebellion and all manner of drama. There’s a quasi-Shakespearean powerhouse of a story, accentuated by Mark Hamill dangling from the curtains (and swinging from metaphorical chandeliers) while shredding them as the voice of Skeletor. The first episode carries a lot of shock value, and my god, this is a risky proposition. I imagine that many, many nights of sleep were lost while weighing courses of action with fondness for the old show and childhood memories in mind. Somehow, everything ends up working. I don’t know how they did it.

Smith and his writers (Marc Bernardin, Tim Sheridan, Diya Mishra, and Eric Carrasco) climbed inside of this story and, clearly, did so with a lot of love for the original show. They realized what parts of the original show worked well, and what needed to happen to pave the way for even better stories. They justified the very existence of this sequel by keeping the original spirit alive and packing the show so full of heartfelt emotion that a few nerd heads might implode. People don’t like change, but I will say that what change transpires here is not radical. It’s not out of left field. It’s all consistent with the nature of these characters and what they would have done, had the original show revolved around a higher jackpot of consequences.

Long story short, the dynamics of this show descend into anarchy. The future of magic and the fate of the universe are at stake. Things can get a little stressful, too. I mean, it’s worth that stress. What progresses throughout the first five episodes makes all of these happenings a rewarding journey. Yet I’m not entirely sure that those who are predisposed to skepticism will hang tight to find out what happens, though it’s wasted effort to give up. That’s especially the case when one considers that the stakes of the original show were actually pretty low. No one really stabbed anyone, even, and there was no danger of true peril. And this series really hits the ground running while trusting that the target audience is (mostly) grown-up and can handle story developments of consequence.

With that said, you don’t really need to be obsessed with the original show to enjoy this new one. Although the episodes are breezy in length, they squeeze in the right amount of exposition to remind everyone where these characters sit in various hierarchies. And there’s more shading and development, too. Skeletor gains a great deal of dimension and Hamill has so much fun voicing him, just crushing the whole gig. Griffin Newman makes Orko a lot less irritating than I recall (though he is still not great at magic). And although this show, as with the original, exists in order to sell toys — let’s get real, all of these nerd-endeavors ultimately do so — this sequel does a lot more legwork to make this an engrossing and bingeworthy experience.

Ultimately, Masters of the Universe: Revelation feels much deeper and transformative than the original show, yet there are no giant and unconvincing leaps to where this story goes. Likewise, the voice cast members slide into their roles quite nicely. Everyone is great here, really. Obviously, Hamill is the voice here. There’s also Sarah Michelle Gellar as Teela and Chris Wood as Prince Adam/He-Man. And there’s so many more, all of whom — including Lena Headey, Henry Rollins, Liam Cunningham, Stephen Root, Diedrich Bader, Alan Oppenheimer, Tony Todd, Kevin Conroy, Justin Long, and (of course) Jason Mewes — who give it their all. Everyone involved in this show clearly wants to treat your childhood well and holds respect for Eternia. You should give them a chance to make magic happen (again).

Netflix’s ‘Masters of the Universe: Revelation’ streams on July 23.

COVID cases are on the rise in every state across the country. Despite vaccines now being available to most people, less than half of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, a percentage we seem to be stuck at. As Stephen Colbert explained on Wednesday’s episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, “The rising cases are being fueled by vaccine hesitancy, which itself is being fueled by a dangerous pathogen scientists are calling ‘the Republican Party.’” Fortunately, some of the GOP’s most prominent members — and, relatedly, some of its most vocal vaccination critics in the past — seem to finally be coming around to the conclusion that being alive is better than not being alive.

“The forecast is so dire some prominent Republicans are speaking up, like Senate minority leader and condom stuffed with baby food Mitch McConnell. Yesterday, McConnell urged everyone to go get a shot… Wow. I’ve got to say — and I hope no one ever takes this out of context — I agree with Mitch McConnell.”

Colbert continued, “We’ve also seen a vaccine change of heart from Louisiana representative and frog who got kissed and turned into an injury attorney Steve Scalise. Scalise finally got his first dose of the vaccine just last week, and yesterday encouraged others to do the same.”

Just yesterday, Scalise announced that “the vaccine is safe, effective, and it’s widely available”… as if that were news. After comparing him to “the guy who just now found out about Bridgerton,” Colbert noted that “Scalise seems to want it both ways, because he then criticized public health outreach saying, ‘You’re seeing some people try to bully people into doing things instead of just encouraging them.’” Which, when you really think about it, isn’t all that surprising coming from a man who, after being shot during a Congressional baseball practice in 2017, claimed that being nearly killed by a rogue gunman made him an even more “ardent” supporter of the Second Amendment “in part because I was saved by people who had guns.”

You can watch the full clip above.

On Wednesday evening, I Alone Can Fix It authors Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker appeared on Anderson Cooper 360, where they played audio from their sit-down interview with Donald Trump. The former-president didn’t continue to insist he would beat George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in an election, but he did spew nonsense about the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, which he called a “loving crowd.”

Trump said the MAGA horde was “ushered in by the police. I mean in all fairness, the Capitol Police were ushering people in. The Capitol Police were very friendly, you know they were hugging and kissing. You don’t see that, but there’s plenty of tape on that too.” Five people died due to the events of the day, and hundreds of officers were injured.

Trump also rambled about the 2020 presidential election, including his baseless claim that “thousands” of dead people voted against him. “Take all of the dead people that voted, and there were thousands of them by the way. We have lists of them, obituaries,” he said. “If you take the illegal immigrants that voted, if you take this — Indians got paid to vote in different places. You know, you had Indians getting paid to vote. Many, many different things. All election-changing. Not just, you know, 12 people.”

After hearing the long-winded audio from history’s fourth-worst president, host Anderson Cooper summed it up nicely. “This is like listening to Nixon drunk rambling, except he’s not drunk,” he said. “He’s just rambling and that he still is holding onto all these lies.”

You can watch the Anderson Cooper 360 clip above.

(Via the Huffington Post)